Although not a common occurrence, fire or smoke within aircraft cabins can be very dangerous. In some cases, the fire or smoke can even be lethal. In particular, fire or smoke can be lethal when (1) the flight crew cannot locate the source of the fire and suppress the fire and (2) the aircraft is too far from an airport to make an immediate landing to obtain assistance from a fire department.
Aircraft cabins often have multiple hidden areas (e.g., behind walls, in the ceiling, below the floor, etc.) that are not in direct view of flight crew (e.g., pilots, cabin crew, etc.) and passengers. As a result, the flight crew and passengers may have difficulty detecting or even identifying the source of fire or smoke that originates from such hidden areas. Any significant delay in detecting and identifying the source of fire or smoke in the aircraft cabin can lead to extremely hazardous conditions for the flight crew and passengers. For example, fire may damage critical components of the aircraft, and inhaling smoke and fumes may affect the health of the flight crew and passengers.
Humans typically detect fire or smoke through the use of visual and olfactory senses. For example, humans can visually perceive fire or smoke. However, the fire or smoke must reach a certain magnitude (e.g., density, thickness, etc.) before the fire or smoke is visually perceivable by humans. That is, in the initial stages of a fire, the smoke may be light and wispy, thereby making the location of the fire difficult to pinpoint. By the time the fire or smoke has reached a visually perceivable magnitude, the fire or smoke may have already reached dangerous levels. Further, if the fire or smoke originates from a hidden area, then the fire or smoke may not be visually perceptible until the fire or smoke has perilously spread past the hidden area.
Humans can also smell smoke, which may indicate the presence of a fire. However, the use of smell is generally limited to detecting that smoke exists as well as the magnitude and changes in magnitude of the smoke. Smell cannot specifically identify the source of the smoke nor the direction from which the smoke originates. In order to aid in the manual detection of smoke, aircraft can be equipped with smoke detectors.
Conventionally, only a limited portion of an aircraft is equipped with smoke detectors. These portions of the aircraft typically include avionics compartments, lavatories, cargo compartments, and crew rest quarters. In other portions of the aircraft, fire or smoke can only be detected by human sight and smell. If the flight crew can identify the source of the fire or smoke, then the flight crew can utilize portable fire extinguishers on the aircraft 100 to suppress any corresponding fire or smoke, assuming the flight crew can gain access to the source. If the flight crew cannot identify the source of the fire or smoke, then the flight crew initiates a checklist procedure.
Historically, aircraft manufacturers and airlines provided the flight crew with a very long and detailed checklist containing multiple troubleshooting steps. For example, in order to detect an electrical fire caused by a short circuit, the checklist may direct the flight crew to depower (e.g., turn off, disable, etc.) various components of the electrical system. In this way, the flight crew can identify the components of the electrical system that caused the electrical fire because the fire will dissipate when the relevant components are depowered. Although the long and detailed checklist is a complete or near complete solution for identifying the source of the fire or smoke, this long and detailed checklist is relatively complicated, requires substantial training, is subject to human error, and is relatively time consuming to complete. For example, while performing the checklist, the flight crew may mistakenly depower critical components of the aircraft that should not be depowered.
In order to eliminate the complexity of the long and detailed checklist, reduce the potential for human error, and reduce the amount of time needed to complete the checklist, the aircraft manufacturers and airlines developed a shortened checklist. This shortened checklist was developed based on an observation that most fire or smoke events within aircraft cabins were caused by only a few possibilities. For example, the majority of electrical based fires on aircraft are produced by air conditioning units that pump warm and cold air into the aircraft cabins and by fans that circulate the air within the aircraft cabins. However, if the source of the fire or smoke is not covered by the shortened checklist, then the source of the fire or smoke may not be identified. In this case, the aircraft may need to make an emergency landing, assuming that an airport is even readily available. In the worst case scenario where the source of the fire cannot be determined or suppressed and an airport is not readily available, the aircraft may be lost in the fire.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure made herein is presented.